TAC Tech => Tires, Brakes & Suspension => Topic started by: d_hache on August 11, 2021, 09:58:26 AM
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Hello everyone, has some of you know i am doing a full restoration on my 1980 Trans Am.
Before I start putting the front end back together I was thinking about a lowering kit.
I am wondering if some of you have lowered your cars so that you might be able to give me pointers.
I will have the original snowflakes and tires on the car.
I am not looking for anything crazy but would love a little drop so it looks a bit more like a a pro street car.
Let me know
Thanks
PS. Will that look strange with the original tires and rims?
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Keith at customworksperformance and/or Dave at pro touring f body.
Used both and good people
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How far are you thinking? “Low” is obviously a relative term and open to interpretation. Personally, my car always sat high by my standards but I learned over the years that it was more likely closer to stock than I’d realized not taking into account most cars you see are sitting on sagged 40 year old suspension and looking good doing it.
So for me, I lowered mine by cutting my front springs, half a coil and 2/3 of a coil, and used 1” lowering blocks out back. Is it a track star now? No. But it feels and handles the same as it did just sitting lower while doing it and it was obviously inexpensive. If you have other goals and/or money to burn then there’s certainly no problem with a different route.
Just my .02
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I agree, to lower just cut the front springs.
Understand, it’s a 2 to 1 ratio.
So to drop 2” cut 1” off the spring.
Measure it, number of fractions of a coil is not that relevant.
You can get lowered rear springs as well or blocks. Most are pretty low in back already.
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For the record, i agree and I did measure my springs which is how I ended up with how much of a coil to remove.
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If you want your car lower than now, be aware that with 40 year old springs, it already is sitting lower. So don't go out and buy something that claims to somehow sit 1" lower than stock, you will likely end up with it raised.
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If I look back at old pictures of my stock height 70 Firebird (photo below) the top of the tires were pretty much right at the side body line. Back in the day I never thought it looked "too high" but when I recently restored my 73, this stock height looked crazy high by today's standards. So I went with a 2" drop front and back. It looks great but I have to avoid many of the larger speed bumps or I get exhaust system scrapes.
Also keep in mind that true lowering springs will generally have a higher spring rate than stock so you probably don't want to cut too much off a stock spring.
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And that stance looks killer with the larger diameters matching the wheelarches.
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one thing to note: cutting the 40 yr old #220 spring will let the stance sit lower HOWEVER a spring that soft still allows the suspension to move ALOT. It is quite common for tires to rub on bumps and stuff with soft springs hanging a bit low. As stated above all lowering springs will have a high SPRING RATE (#500 - 600 ish) to prevent this AND take full advantage of the suspension.